Saturday 10th December 2022 Welcome to my final A to Z fortnightly exploration of public transport provision in Britain's mid sized towns which brings me to Somerset. Yeovil is the county’s second largest town after Taunton, having a population of around 48,000 making it just a bit larger than Bridgewater and Frome. Its in the... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th November 2022 Welcome to the penultimate AtoZ of public transport in 24 mid size British towns. Yes; despite all the speculation about eXmouth and Zennor, I’ve conceded defeat for X and Z but for today’s W, I was pleased to pay a visit to Weston-super-Mare a few weeks ago and see the progress... Continue Reading →
This month's pot pourri of observational miscellany from recent travels. Not First Greater Anglia has invested in an impressive new fleet of trains including the rather nice Class 745 which offer first class seats on the Norwich to Liverpool Street service. A problem arises when one of these trains is unavailable and substituted by one... Continue Reading →
Sunday 9th October 2022 Last week's announcement that Serco will be ending their franchise for the Caledonian Sleeper next June came as no great surprise. I won't be shedding any tears at the company's departure. Unlike Merseyrail where this giant global monolith of an outsourcing business seems to be doing a good job running the... Continue Reading →
Saturday 1st October 2022 I’m sorry Scunthorpe, I was intending to feature you in my fortnightly AtoZ visits to mid size towns as suggested by a correspondent but Northern Trains’ incompetence at organising rail replacement buses last weekend coupled with TransPennine Express’s penchant for cancellations meant I had to give up on the idea for... Continue Reading →
Sunday 5th June 2022 Over the last few weeks I’ve been keeping notes of the state of catering for passengers travelling first class on trains. Here’s my report complete with a complimentary coffee, biscuits and packet of sea salt flavoured crisps. It’s only long distance ‘inter-city’ train operators who get involved in on board catering... Continue Reading →
Thursday 19th May 2022 Last week was Rail Sale travel week for me. I’d bagged a couple of bargain priced tickets when they went on sale last month for two day trips - one to Cornwall and one to Scotland - as you do. Monday morning last week saw me roll up at Paddington for... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 3rd May 2022 It's a lovely train ride over to Gloucester particularly the scenic section through the Cotswolds between Swindon, Kemble, Stroud and Stonehouse. Gloucester railway station is perhaps not quite so scenic but its renowned claim to fame is having Britain’s longest continuous unbroken platform measuring 659 yards - that’s over a third... Continue Reading →
30th April 2022 If you fancy taking a direct train from Brighton station to somewhere beyond the normal Southern/ Thameslink outposts of Southampton, London Victoria, Bedford, Cambridge or Hastings/Ore then you’ve got just ten working days left. After Friday 13th May those destinations will be the limit of your rail travel experience without a change... Continue Reading →
Thursday 16th December 2021 As trailed in Tuesday’s blog about Soham, on Monday and Tuesday I took a look at a couple of other developments in the new winter rail timetable which commenced on Sunday. If one of LNER’s no expense spared razzmatazz launches is anything to go by the most exciting December development by... Continue Reading →
Friday 26th November 2021 As explained in Wednesday’s blog when the violent storm caused the railway track at Dawlish to collapse in 2014 there was much talk at the highest political level (Prime Minister David Cameron no less) about taking action to ensure the South West wasn’t ever cut off from the rail network again.... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 24th November 2021 Let's get something straight from the outset. It's great to see daily passenger trains running again between Exeter and Okehampton after all the "restoring your railway" and "reversing the Beeching cuts" rhetoric from Government, so very well done to everyone involved in this project. But to be pedantic Network Rail Western,... Continue Reading →
Sunday 19th September 2021 I thought I should provide a few updates after my post a month ago about unsatisfactory experiences at the hands of various rail companies and their hard to reach customer service departments, or often, their sub-contracted outsourced companies. I explained how South Western Railway had twice declined my delay repay claim... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 18th August 2021 It's always impressive to read corporate vision documents. You know the kind of thing. Glossy photos of staff helping smiling customers and paragraphs full of glowing statements about the company's unbridled commitment to customers and how we're at the heart of everything the company does. Sadly they seldom match up to... Continue Reading →
Saturday 3rd July 2021 My latest 7-day All Line Rover came to an end yesterday (the first I’ve taken for a couple of years due to the pandemic) so here are a few reflections on the week’s travels in these continuing Covid aware times. Normally I’d ensure I got my Rover money’s worth by making... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th May 2021 Night Riviera and Caledonian Sleeper both conjure up romantic images of wonderful train travel through the night whisking you from one end of the country to another. Britain's sleeper trains certainly do that, taking you from London's Paddington just before midnight and waking up in Penzance for breakfast at 8am or... Continue Reading →
Friday 30th April 2021 Thandi’s 11:30 Birmingham bound coach departs Victoria Coach Station yesterday FLiXBUS restarted British domestic express coach services last week with an extended range of destinations served from London so I thought it was worth giving the ambitious German company another road test. My first trip with FLiXBUS was immediately after ‘Lockdown... Continue Reading →
Sunday 23rd February 2020 If was 100 years ago it would be called Norton Junction Station but as it's 2020 today's brand new addition to the National Rail network is christened Worcestershire Parkway. The £22 million GWR run station is located where the North Cotswold Line (from Paddington and Oxford to Worcester) crosses the main... Continue Reading →
Friday 10th January 2020 I took a couple of train journeys today to catch up on two recent rail industry developments. First up was SWR's newly refurbished Class 442 trains now back in service after a bit of hiatus last summer after issues with the door locking mechanism and then compatibility with signal equipment. Apparently... Continue Reading →
Thursday 2nd January 2020 I looked enviously at Paddington's departure board this morning seeing the 09:15 departure to Bristol Temple Meads, with its attractive non-stop 68 minute run to Bristol Parkway, 'boarding' yet still eluding me. Today was the first opportunity to have another try of enjoying the 'non-stop' experience after its hit and miss... Continue Reading →
Monday 16th December 2019 One of two brand new stations opened for business on the rail network yesterday, Warrington West; so I took a ride there today to take a look. But just for fun I decided to go the long way round from London and sample GWR's new speeded up timetable which also began... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 10th December 2019 It may be a bit pricey - at £8 (and only for six months validity too); it may be hard to find - usually only available from 'under the counter' at certain GWR rail stations; it may have some annoying flaws in its layout and content (see below); but it's a... Continue Reading →
Thursday 28th November 2019 The rail industry's fond of slipping in new developments before they're officially due to start; they call it a 'preview service'. It's just happened again on the stopping service between Reading and Paddington currently operated by GWR and where most of the service is to be handed over to TfL Rail... Continue Reading →
... and other west Cornwall travels. Thursday 8th August 2019 Having travelled up to Cape Wrath last month to visit mainland Britain's most northerly bus terminus I thought it was time to take a look at the most southerly bus stop. It's located at The Green, Lizard, just north of Lizard Point itself, where First... Continue Reading →
Sunday 7th July 2019 Here's a great way to spend five hours on a summer Sunday: enjoy one of the best circular journeys in Devon, if not the whole of Britain. It takes in three top rail lines and a brilliant bus route skirting a National Park. The circular route can be based on either... Continue Reading →
Friday 24th May 2019 There was a time if you fancied running a coach travel business you'd get yourself a coach or two (probably decent second-hand stock to begin with), pick up a school contract to run, get known among well-to-do local clubs and societies for those lucrative private hires and maybe run a small... Continue Reading →
Saturday 18th May 2019 Today's a poignant day on the Great Western. The much loved HST trains are running their last journeys across the network to and from London as new Hitachi IET Class 800 and 802 trains now reign supreme. Whereas last week's LNER Azuma launch was met with much excitement for the future,... Continue Reading →
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